My road to owning Bitcoin and Ethereum Cryptocurrency

Around december of 2015 I started to get interested in Cryptocurrency and Bitcoin. I read some positive posts and love code and the web since I am a front-end web developer.

Below I will share my first steps in my road in owning Bitcoin and Ethereum Cryptocurrencies.

DISCLAIMER: I am NOT a proffesional trader or Crypto expert, just someone interested and invested. Please dont use the text below as investment advice. Also don't invest in crypto with money you are not prepared to loose... This is a very risky market.

First step getting Bitcoin

When I decided to own Bitcoin I first looked at mining but quickly realized that I was way too late in the game for that, to mine Bitcoin you need huge mining setups and even then it is a huge risk.

So I need to buy Bitcoin to get involved. I looked at the Bitcoin charts and when the price was at a lower level I bought BTC by spending EURO at the great company bitonic.nl this Dutch company allows me to quickly send EURO via iDeal and they send me Bitcoin in return.

Owning and trading BTC

At first I had my new Bitcoin send to my account at okcoin.com here they heep my coins and they allow me to trade BTC for other Crypto or USD, EURO or other currency.

I tried a few small trades, aiming to sell high and buy back low, but soon realized that this is very similar to gambling. I decided to just hold my Bitcoin and not trade, I see this investment as a long term thing and should not get seduced into gambling.

Hold Bitcoin safely

I wanted to hold by BTC myself, not depend on okcoin.com they provide great service but if I don’t trade I should keep my Bitcoin myself in a safe place.

My first solution to this was using a Bitcoin wallet called greenaddress. They provide great security and allow me to get my coins even if my house burns down or if the company fails.

Holding Bitcoin even safer

Just as I was happy with my greenaddress wallet I started reading about Bitcoin hardware wallets. The main issue with software wallets is that they interact directly with your PC or Mac. If these computers get hacked or compromised your Private keys could get stolen. My solution? have your Bitcoin keys in a hardware wallet like the ledgerwallet.com.

A hardware wallet like the Ledger Wallet Nano I have provides privacy and security. Your Bitcoin private keys are never held or known by Ledger or a third party. They are hard locked in your smartcard device. With a hardware wallet, your wallet remains decentralized, you are your own bank.

So I got the Ledger Nano and absolutely love how it works! The interface looks great and it all feels simple, solid and secure. Truly a great feeling to have my Bitcoins secured in such a safe way.

Wait what is this about Ethereum?

So I own Bitcoin and have it locked away safely in my hardware wallet, all fine and I enjoy keeping up with the adventure that is the Bitcoin price.

But I start hearing and reading about an other Cryptocurrency called Ethereum:

Ethereum is a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts: applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of downtime, censorship, fraud or third party interference. Ethereum is how the Internet was supposed to work.

I truly love this concept and think big things could happen with Ethereum, since the price was low but rising fast (1.5 USD when I invested) see the price here. I decided to invest.

Converting some of my Bitcoins to Ethereum

So own Ethereum (also called ETH) I needed to trade some BTC, I found the exchange kraken.com where they allow trading BTC for ETH. I signed up, got myself approved and after a day I was able to move some BTC to Kraken and convert them to ETH.

And WOW was this a good decision so far! The price jumped from 1.5 USD to 2 USD per ETH and I am very excited to see where it can go.

Keeping my Ethereum safe

At the time of writing, there is no hardware wallet available yet for ETH, but I did find Mist wallet a amazing looking wallet for ETH. I am using it now to store all my investment safely.

Where will we go from here?

I still own Bitcoin as well and think there will be room for more than 1 successful Cryptocurrency. Let me know what you think about Cryptocurrency and where it will go!